Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. to play Nowadays festival at Artsquest in Bethlehem

Detroit-based indie rock duo Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. is at the point in its career when it wants to make every show count.

Daniet Zott says he and Josh Epstein had toured in separate bands for a dozen years before coming together to work on a new musical project in Zott's basement that, over months, developed into an EP, "Horse Power."

Despite having only three original songs and a cover of The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows," it caught the attention of media heavyweights such as National Public Radio and The New York Times.

These days, the band is touring to support its first full-length album, "It's a Corporate World." Released in June and described variously as "psych-retro pop" and "beach wave," it landed on several year-end "best of" lists.

On Friday, when the band headlines the opening night of ArtsQuest's first Nowadays indie rock festival at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, chances are you'll see an enthusiastic live show.

But you'll have to forgive Zott if even he's not quite sure what has made the band catch on so quick.

"It's weird, you know?" he says in a telephone call from a van motoring to a show in Vail, Colo.

"Because Josh and I had been in bands touring for several years … and working really hard at writing songs, learning how to make a record ourselves, structure-wise and all that. So you work hard for that long, then you just decide randomly, 'Yeah, let's just try doing something like this,' and it happens fast.

"It just kind of feels weird because all the work you put into something else, it's all for naught. But I think what we've realized is whatever the band did before, that work got us to where we could make our own record and learn a little bit more about the business. So I think it's an appropriate time for something to actually happen."

The fact that the band had so little belief that its pet project would become its primary focus is the reason for its unusual name, Zott says.

"At the time, we weren't really a band," he says. "We didn't think things would happen the way they did and change so quickly and all that. So I think we didn't think too much about what we were doing. We didn't think it was that important to come up with some sort of cool name or anything like that. We just were having fun and keeping it sort of laid back."

He says they had intended to call themselves Counting Crows II. "And a buddy of ours said, 'That's really horrible. You guys might as well name yourselves Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.' And so we thought, 'Alright, that's even worse. Let's do that.'"

After releasing the "Horse Power EP" in July 2010, the duo released a remix EP, and it was chosen as one of the Best New Bands of 2010 by SPIN magazine.

When it took the show on the road. Zott says there was a feeling "it's about being an entertainer as much as you are an artist — try to add that element to give people their money's worth."

The band often took the stage in NASCAR uniforms — a tribute to its namesake race car driver — or in skeleton masks. It no longer does either, but it's not because the duo doesn't think it need it — it's to keep the show fresh for its audiences, Zott says.

"We like to dress up, so I think we always have something that we're pulling out," he says.

Similarly, the band always plays covers, just as it covered "God Only Knows" on that first EP. It has done Madonna songs and "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood. "We try to play something different, do different covers for the fans to get the full experience. We don't want them to ever see the same show," says Zott.

It's also weird being so extroverted onstage, Zott says, because he and Epstein are far more introverted people who found each other because they both liked tinkering with music in the studio.

"We just went home for about a week and a half and started writing songs, but now we're having to flip our brains to get more a more extrovert mindset for when we go out and play shows," he says.

Perhaps a recent appearance on late night talk show host Conan O'Brien's show – Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.'s first national television appearance -- gave the band a sense of what the lives of bigger bands are like.

"Oh man, they treat you so well, it's amazing," Zott says. "I always remember the little things, the things that stick out in my mind. Like, my amplifier, the light on it wasn't working, and they replaced it. The amount of care and production that goes into those things is beyond anything we've really seen. It's like a high-level. It's a lot of fun."

•How much: Single day $29 adv., $39 day of show; ($25 and $35, ArtsQuest members); Two-day pass $55 adv., $69 day of show ($45 and $59, ArtsQuest members); ages 6 and under, $10. All shows general admission.